licked by flames
by Aiko Isari
Summary: (Encode/tri/Cyber Sleuth/Next 0rder) The Royal Knights have never made a mark on their world before. Except one is apparently doing so now, leaving destruction in their wake. When the younger chosen interfere, Hikari is left scorched and suffering from fever dreams. Well, they think she's dreaming. She's positive that girl wasn't a dream.


_Prologue - Once Upon a Time_

Patience was a virtue outside of fairy tales.

It was profoundly necessary, in order to continue the charade. In order to keep having heroes, there must be an inclination to want to have one. There must be a need. And there was.

A young woman, fifteen at best, lifted her hands to the sky, to the bird soaring high by the clouds. She covered her eyes with one hand to see past the sunlight and the other fell limply to her side. She sighed and looked about the trees. Before her eyes, a leaf faded away, as though rotted apart from the inside. The girl looked away from it once more and smiled.

"You're doing great!"

 _Too bad it's not enough._

"Oh look at you up so early."

She didn't turn to see the speaker. It was as much a precautionary measure for herself as it was for him. If she saw him, she would have to hurt him, perhaps even kill him. As long as she didn't know him, the charade could continue. Or maybe she would be lucky and that wouldn't be the case at all. "Practice is essential for progress."

"So is self-care."

The young woman let out a heavy sigh. "This place doesn't practice self-care."

"Quite. It practices chewing and spitting up for baby birds."

Sometimes she understood his references . "What do you want?"

"Your help. The Knights are in flux."

"I'm not a Knight." She leaned against the nearest burning tree, the power licking past her bare arm. "Neither is she."

The other let out a sigh it probably didn't mean. She didn't trust it enough to tell. "Of course you are. You inherited their will. You have _her_ will. You don't have much of a choice. Not until you actually hear her again, Bell-chan."

She wanted to cringe at the utter _bastardization_ of her name but since it was better than her real name, she would let it go. For now. Bell mussed up her hair. "I doubt we can convince them on our own though."

"Probably not. But sides need to be chosen. The Holy War shall begin anew."

"Which is just what you want."

Maybe she imagined it, but Bell could easily picture the glare focused between her shoulder blades. Then it lightened. Bell didn't react as much as possible. She couldn't even try.

"I guess you do have a point." The figure stepped closer. "But you're going to turn the tide, aren't you? As a world champion, your _pride_ is at stake."

"I can swallow it." she just had to wait. Wait and hunt. Wait and kill.

Bell snapped her fingers idly and her bird came soaring down, leaving clouds of sand as she landed. She scratched quickly at her feathers, listening to the soft, approving chirrups.

By the time she attempted to turn around, her visitor was gone.

Rindou Akiho scoffed and looked down at her hands. "Arrogant bastard."

"Should we go after him?" Digitorin's quiet voice, the low _malice_ in it, was belied by the continuing nuzzles of her beak to Akiho's palm.

Akiho sighed. "We would have to find where he's going first. For now, let's go get something to eat. I heard there's a restaurant around here."

Digitorin clacked her beak at her but took off once more. Akiho watched her fly with a wan smile and pushed off from the tree. As she moved away, the tree rotted and crumbled into binary. If she noticed, she didn't say so.

* * *

Radio silence meant caution.

Unfortunately, Gennai was the definition of too long radio silence. Finding him was easily as difficult as carrying a ton of feathers with just your arms. It left Koushiro with a horrible headache to even try. Still, he hadn't had contact with Tentomon for quite a while. Most of the Chosen had not. BelialVamdemon had left the barriers so loose and frayed it was lucky for anyone to see through then, let alone go through safely. So he simply had to wait for answers and hope.

So, and not for the first time either, Koushiro took a break from his computer. He had to try hard to not go back to his monitor, but it was difficult. He had friends who would message him, work to do. Things such as that. Still, his phone still worked just as well in the interim.

He pushed the chair in and let it roll. He cast his eyes around the office. Everything was functioning normally. None of these were showing any signs of wear, despite their being nearly two years old. And yet, Koushiro felt a strange prickle at the back of his neck. He didn't often get these feelings of disquiet, he usually powered through and forgot them or predicted their issues beforehand with the thoughts he had available. He wasn't Taichi, who had his emotions heavy and clear on his sleeve and instincts easy to muddle. But he was still observant, even though the others worried he wasn't self-observant. His mother was bad enough, really.

Just as he made it to the door, his Digivice and computer beeped loudly in unison. Koushiro flew to it, logging back in and clicking the email open. It opened to DigiCode line after DigiCode line of text.

The bottom of the page was in handwritten, flowing, Japanese script.

 _Let Stability's core be broken and the darkness open wide._

 _Let light be burst to flames until it chokes and bleeds._

 _The Knights are marching on._

 _Let the four fall._

 _Let the gods die._

 _Let the cycle warp and end._

 _Let the left behind rot away_

 _Under the angel's cry._

 _The dragon rides on over the accursed red and the world rots and dreams_

 _But only the unlocked doors can create the final chapter._

Koushiro looked and immediately counted the lines, the syllables, anything. Nothing. No similarity. So perhaps that was separate. Perhaps it was a decoy, a distraction. But a distraction for what?

He pulled up Gennai's email address and for a moment, hesitated. He did not really expect an answer now, but that may have precisely been why he needed to ask for one. So, he went to his desk and set to work, determined to contact everyone he knew before he started interpreting the DigiCode. If he even could. He would have to try, ominous words like that.

Meanwhile, across town, Yagami Hikari dropped an ice cube on her brother's forehead and watched him shout in irritation. She laughed, completely carefree. All was right in her world.

Then an unfamiliar pain raced up her arm and she looked to it in utter bafflement. She was immediately distracted from it by Taichi's smelly pillow shoved into her face. She retaliated, and the feeling was forgotten. For the moment.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** Okay, here's number two for tonight, which is technically number five. Yay. Please read and review!

Challenges: Femslash week day five 'soulmate', Mangaverse boot camp - preserve, Chapter Set Boot camp '79', game verse boot camp 'bells', interseason boot camp prompt 'harmony, Mega Prompts Quote 66, Soulmate Challenge, rare pairs challenge, season rewrite boot camp 'untidy, Epic Masterclass World list 10.


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